Bisphenol A (BPA) Found On Dollar Bills

Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used mostly in food and beverage containers, seems to be everywhere, even in your wallet.

A study by two advocacy groups - the Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, says 95 percent of dollar bills tested positive for the substance, which studies have linked to reproductive issues.

The finding was made in a more wide-ranging test that looked for traces of the chemical on thermal paper receipts. Scientists wanted to know whether the chemical was moving from receipts to currency when consumers tucked the receipts in their wallets or held them with change from a transaction.

Unlike BPA in baby bottles and other products, BPA on thermal paper isn't chemically bound in any way: it's a powdery film on the surface of receipts. Data from this report suggests the chemical does not stay on the paper, but rather easily transfers to our skin and likely to other items that it rubs against.

"Our findings demonstrate that BPA cannot be avoided, even by the most conscious consumer," said Erika Schreder, Staff Scientist at the Washington Toxics Coalition and lead author of the report. "This unregulated use of large amounts of BPA is having unintended consequences, including exposure to people when we touch receipts."

Present in most Americans

Present in 93 percent of all Americans, scientists studying BPA have hypothesized the major route of human exposure is through food, as BPA is used as a liner in nearly all canned food and beverages. The authors say this study also suggests that skin absorption from thermal paper receipts with unbound BPA may lead to exposure at levels equivalent to exposure from food sources.

Produced in quantities of about six billion pounds each year worldwide, BPA is one of the most widely used chemicals of all time. During the past decade, researchers in a number of countries have explored the connections between BPA exposure--particularly before birth and in early childhood--and the health problems.

In particular exposure to BPA before birth has been found in laboratory studies to predispose animals to cancer; alter brain development; and lead to early puberty in female animals. Male animals exposed in the womb produce less testosterone, have larger prostate glands, and make fewer sperm than unexposed animals. Studies have also shown a correlation between BPA and obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

As part of the study, receipts made with thermal paper were collected from 22 retailers in 10 states and Washington, D.C. Laboratory tests found BPA in very large quantities--up to 2.2 percent of the total weight--in 11 of the 22 receipts.

Retailers with BPA-containing receipts included: Safeway, Shaw's, Meijer, Cub Foods, Sunoco, Kroger, Giant Eagle, H-E-B, Randalls, Fred Meyer, and the Rayburn Café in the U.S. House of Representatives. BPA-free receipts were found at Trader Joe's, Hannaford, Home Depot, Albertson's, Ace Hardware, Wal-Mart, Sears, Costco, and the Hart American Grill serving the U.S. Senate.

Moves from receipts to fingers

In tests mimicking typical handling of receipts, BPA transferred from receipts to fingers. Just ten seconds of holding a receipt transferred up to 2.5 micrograms, the researchers say. Researchers transferred much higher amounts, about 15 times as much, by rubbing receipts.

"Since BPA in thermal paper receipts is present in a powdery film, we suspected it could easily travel from those receipts to other objects," the authors wrote. Objects like money.BPA was found on 21 of the 22 dollar bills tested, they report.

Although the levels of BPA detected on money are much lower than those on receipt paper, the researchers said the near-ubiquitous presence of BPA on dollar bills indicates that BPA is escaping from products to contaminate other materials in unexpected ways.

"BPA on receipts, dollar bills, and in many other products, is a direct result of the absurdly lax controls on chemicals in the United States," said Andy Igrejas, Director of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition. "The 112th Congress should make reform of the failed 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act a top legislative priority to protect American families for generations to come."

FDA position

The Food and Drug Administration's official position on BPA is that levels found in the food supply are not harmful. The food industry remains firmly committed to the chemical. 

Last spring, when Sen. Diane Feinstein introduced an amendment to the Senate version of the Food Safety and Modernization Act to ban BPA from food and beverage containers, widespread industry support for the legislation collapsed.

"We will not support food safety legislation that bans or phases out BPA from any food and beverage container," Scott Faber, vice president for federal affairs for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents food companies and retailers, told the Washington Post last April.

Indeed, the legislation remained stalled for the remainder of the year, until it passed the Senate November 30, after Feinstein agreed to withdraw the BPA-banning amendment.